First off, I apologize to my friends and roleplay partners who've been left hanging. Any desire to cancel old threads is completely understandable.

I've been struggling with a serious health issue the past several months. There was a long period where things would seem to improve only to relapse, delaying things further. All that aside, just wanted to let people know I'm around again and to contact me via PM or Trillian - ironsoldier, if anyone wants to get things going again.

Once the break following the previous match was over, the announcer made her way to centre ring and raised her mic to her lips.

”Ladies and gentlemen,” She began, ignoring the music and the audience with the ease of long practice, ”The following contest is a best two out of three falls match, where falls may only be scored via pinfall or submission.”

The audience roared their approval and the announcer paused until the first stirrings of Remember by High and Mighty Color filled the arena, blaring out of the speakers to announce the imminent arrival of the first contestant.

”Introducing first,” The announcer began, only to falter as the speakers spat a harsh burst of static. Remember died abruptly, cutting off out of nowhere, as if someone had ripped the power cord out. There was an uneasy moment of silence, as everyone in the arena wondered what the hell had just happened.

Then the sound system roared back to life – ‘Our future’s here and now’ they screamed, ‘Here comes the countdown!’

And the crowd exploded, roaring their disapproval as the stocky figure of Samiya Kusanagi strode out onto the stage, arms thrown wide as she soaked it all up. Her lips were split in a wide, cruel grin and she even bowed to the audience as she appreciated their investment in the upcoming match.

For her upcoming rematch with Akino Sanada, the Schoolgirl Assassin was dressed as just that – a wrestling schoolgirl, much to her well-hidden distaste. Hopefully, this would be the last time though she somewhat suspected it wouldn’t be. She wasn’t that lucky. Short dark skirt, white blouse, tan vest, socks halfway up her meaty calves.

In one hand, she held a microphone of her own. Samiya didn’t wait for the announcer to recover.

”Introducing first, weighing in at 143 lbs and hailing from Miami, Florida, I am the Schoolgirl Assassin – Samiya! Kusanagi!”

Her presumptuousness earnt her another round of booing from the majority of the fanbase but she just laughed it off, rolling under the ropes and back to her feet in a smoother motion than most could manage in a skirt.

”Fans of AFW, the first thing I told you when I stood in this ring was ‘every angel falls’. Akino Sanada might not be an angel, but she’s most definitely fallen. How long has it been since she was challenging for the 24/7 title? Not long and now…”

Samiya shrugged in mock sympathy, as if to say ‘look at her now’.

”They say in the land of the blind, the one eyed woman is queen. But the only thing Akino is queen of is ashes – the ashes of her career. She couldn’t beat Carmen Rodriguez, she couldn’t beat me then and she can’t beat me now. This-“

Her arms encompassed the ring.

”-Isn’t a match, ladies and gentlemen. It’s an execution.”

Finished, she cast the microphone aside with a dismissive flick of her wrist and, as Akino’s theme picked up for the second time and the few Samiya fans in the audience struck up a chant of ‘Samiya’s going to kill you’, settled into a fighting crouch to wait for the bluenette’s arrival.

Akino's music began to play again almost immediately as Samiya wrapped up her speech, and fortunately this time it was no trick. The one-eyed maiden stepped through the curtain and emerged on the stage to such a warm greeting from the crowd that it was actually rather surprising to Akino. Ironically enough she didn't care for any of them in the slightest.

Maybe they just disliked Samiya so much that they'd cheer anyone she was up against. Akino could definitely understand that after having met her in the ring once before.

Considering her temperament, one might think that after her emphatic defeat at Samiya's hands, and all the taunting the schoolgirl assassin had thrown at her, that Akino would be downright furious right now. But if she was, she didn't show it. With a straight face she marched down the aisle, ignoring all the cat calls from those who "appreciated" her schoolgirl attire. It certainly wasn't her typical outfit of choice, but it didn't bother her either. This was a Halloween-themed pay-per-view for AFW, after all. It only made sense there'd be some emphasis on sexy outfits at some point.

As she went, not for one second did she make eye contact with Samiya, even as she ascended the steps, then slipped in between the top and middle ropes to enter the ring as the ring announcer started to introduce her.

"And her opponent, from Tokyo, Japan, weighing one hundred--"

Before he even finished, out of nowhere Akino suddenly bolted into a dead sprint across the ring and leapt through the air, aiming a powerful running dropkick right at Samiya's chest in hopes of blasting her right into the corner turnbuckles behind her!

If anyone had been wondering before where Akino's fire and fury had gone, they weren't anymore.

This time, Samiya was not smiling. There was nothing on her face except cool, calculating focus as she watched Akino make her way to the ring, her eyes slightly narrowed and locked on the other wrestler like a targeting laser. There was little point in messing around today, no point in trying to pull the wool over that one eye when Akino knew exactly what sort of thing to expect. Well, she still had plenty of ideas but part of them was letting the one-eyed wrestler think this was going to be just another wrestling match.

And then pulling the rug out from under her, but the first crucial phase was building up the façade. Tricking both Akino and the audience, infuriating the former and lulling the latter into the idea that – this time – things would be different. This time – it would be a simple, straightforward fight. This time – their ‘heroine’ would get a chance to show her skills and prove herself superior. This time – it would be Samiya sent to sleep with Akino’s legs lassoed around her neck.

The Schoolgirl Assassin hoped they all enjoyed their dreams – before she ripped them, kicking and screaming, back to reality.

Beneath her steely exterior, however, she was slightly bemused at the show of diffidence. She’d expected Akino to look… well. Angrier. Or at least to make eye contact. Oh well. She had to make the best of what she had.

Resisting the urge to brush her skirt down, Samiya held her position as Akino entered the ring, the announcer began to do her job and-

Caught entirely off-guard, the Schoolgirl Assassin went slamming back into the corner, gasping in pain as the turnbuckles caught her in the back. She bounced out again, huffing a hurt laugh as she did. For all this was going to hurt, Samiya couldn’t help but chuckle.

Samiya clearly hadn’t seen it coming, and neither had the crowd. A collective gasp rang out through the arena as Akino’s boots slammed right onto their target, blasting the Schoolgirl Assassin right back into her corner.

The chuckle from her foe didn’t bother Akino in the slightest. She could laugh all she wanted now, but it wouldn’t be long before that laughter was going to be replaced with cries of pain, at least if Akino had anything to say about it. And she didn’t exactly feel like waiting to try to get to that point either.

Picking herself right up the second she landed on the mat, the one-eyed maiden quickly dashed toward her foe at full speed once again.

“KUSANAGI!” she roared at the top of her lungs as she fired off a vicious forearm strike aimed right for her opponent’s face, aiming to daze Samiya a bit and keep her right there in her corner so she could continue her assault!

Samiya really hadn’t seen it coming and, later, she’d been kicking herself about that. Right then and there, she was both a bit busy to worry about that and too busy finding it hilarious. She had literally enough time to shake the daze out of her eyes before she had to defend herself again.

For all it was funny, she still couldn’t afford to just let the other wrestler pound on her. Fortunately, this was something she could do – here, the tattooed woman’s greater mass and strength would help her as long as she could use them right. That wasn’t really something she could plan for right now though.

Seeing Akino coming right for her, all Samiya had time to do was dig her heels in and brace as best she could. She was already in a bad position and the last thing she needed to do was make it worse. She definitely didn’t have time to counter or anything along those lines; in fact, it was all the Schoolgirl Assassin could do to get her arms up to block the blue-haired maid’s attack. And the combination of strength and momentum still rocked the purple-haired beauty back on her heels.

But she was still laughing, as if the righteously indignant scream was strengthening her in some indescribable way.

Another gasp was let out from the crowd as Akino lashed right out at Samiya, seemingly fully intent on turning this match into an all out brawl right from the outset! Based on their reaction, many quite clearly wouldn’t have wanted to trade places with the Schoolgirl Assassin….yet, Samiya was still laughing.

If Akino was pissed off, and she damn sure was, this wasn’t doing anything whatsoever to calm her temper. Quite the opposite, in fact. The vengeful flame in Akino’s eye grew with each second that insufferable sound kept coming out of Samiya’s lips.

Barring her teeth and growling like a rabid dog, Akino tried to fire the point of her knee under Samiya’s guard and into her stomach, hoping that would help break down her defenses. Not that she’d really wait to find out regardless. Whether it helped or not, Akino would immediately begin hammering one punch after another at Samiya’s skull with all the fury she could muster!

While she was a decent striker, it wasn’t something Samiya could claim to be even good at. She was adequate for a wrestler, but really she preferred to be wrestling. If she’d wanted to punch, kick and knee her opponents, she’d have gone into a sport which was all about punching, kicking and kneeing people.

But, caught in the corner with a furious Akino right in front of her, suddenly having a better striking game would have been useful.

Very, very useful, actually. This wasn’t what Samiya had prepared for in the slightest and, despite the chuckling, she was very much on the back foot as Akino pounded her guard.

And her relative lack of ability showed itself as she expected Akino to keep going for her head. Her arms stayed up, meaning that all she had to block the vicious knee was her belly. That didn’t work so well. The submission specialist’s stomach was taut and toned but the blow still drove the wind out of her, bringing her laughter to a wheezing halt.

The dark beauty folded slightly, managing to avoid doubling over, but it left her in a poor place to do anything about the hail of punches. All she could manage was getting an arm up, staving off the worst for now, but she really couldn’t keep this up for long.

It wasn’t like Akino to just unload a massive punching frenzy on someone, even an opponent in a match. But it was equally uncommon for Akino to have as much animosity for a foe as she did for Samiya. This sort of tactic might’ve been well outside of her typical fighting style, but it was fueled with all the anger and malice of the one-eyed maiden.

After repeatedly yelling at Akino failed to get her to back off, the ref gave up on it, and the bell rang to officially start the match. Initially that might’ve seemed bad for Samiya considering the position she was in. But it also meant Akino could now be threatened with a disqualification if she didn’t back off soon. And even as pissed off as she was, she did want to win this match just as much as she wanted to beat the living shit out of Samiya. There wasn’t any room in that plan for a DQ.

So just as the ref came over to start a warning count, Akino tried to slip one last punch past Samiya’s guard, before grabbing at the girl’s purple hair. From there she’d try to snapmare her out of the corner and onto her shapely rear, and whip off a stiff kick right at the center of her foe’s back!

Samiya hadn’t really been paying much attention to the ref or her efforts to get Akino off her – the cynicism of the purple-haired woman meant she wouldn’t have trusted it even if she had noticed. And, honestly, she hadn’t because she’d been a bit busy with the feral wrestler trying to bash her skull in.

But even she noticed the bell, though she didn’t let it distract her. Just because Akino could now be disqualified didn’t mean she was going to pay attention.

And it was just as well that she did because she only just caught the punch aimed at her skull with her blocking forearm. With neither the time nor patience to snarl at the referee, all Samiya could do was-

Get taken for a ride, her scalp stinging as her long hair was used to flip her head over heels into a snapmare. The Schoolgirl Assassin hissed like a scalded cat as the impact sent a nasty shock up her tailbone but she didn’t feel like staying put for whatever came next.

Instead, she threw herself forward into a swift if inelegant roll to put a bit more space between her and Akino, avoiding the kick by good luck as much as anything. As soon as she felt she’d made enough of a gap, the tattooed wrestler scrambled to get to her feet and get some sort of defence up.

She needed to get something of a counterattack going – she’d weathered the worst so far but she knew that could only last so long. And she had an image to consider.